Grella completes rise by winning call-up to face England

By Michael CockerillJanuary 31 2003

The one fresh face in an otherwise familiar line-up of World Cup veterans is Vince Grella, who yesterday completed his international set by being included in a predictable 18-man Australian squad for next month's friendly against England.

The 23-year-old central midfielder is the only uncapped player named by coach Frank Farina for the match in London on February12.

It is just reward for a fine season in Italy's Serie A with unfashionable club Empoli. Grella's elevation to the senior team completes his journey through the ranks, having previously represented Australia at under-17, under-20 and under-23 (Olympic) level.

Unlike many of his former teammates at youth level - among them Harry Kewell, Brett Emerton, Marco Bresciano and Mile Sterjovski - Grella has taken his time to get to the top but after five years' hard work in Italy has earned his chance.

So well has he played in Empoli's return to the top flight this season, he is now being linked to three of the country's biggest clubs - AC Milan, Lazio and Juventus. Farina had little choice but to acknowledge his achievements, although with the return to form of Paul Okon, the likelihood is Grella will have to be content with a place on the bench at Upton Park.");document.write("

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"First things first," Farina said. "He is in a similar mould to Paul and he's in the squad for the first time. I suppose you could say he's serving an apprenticeship."

While Okon is all but certain to wear the armband, Farina said he had been "amused" by the amount of publicity devoted to the issue in recent months, maintaining the captaincy was simply not a priority.

"To be honest, the most important thing was picking the squad," he said. "We're not like the other sports where the captaincy is such a big deal. You can read into that what you like. If it generates more publicity for the game, then great, you can run with it as much as you want."

Grella recently described the prospect of winning his first Socceroo cap against England as "mouth-watering", adding during an interview with tribalfootball.com, "Next to representing Australia at the Olympics [Sydney 2000] it would be the highlight of my career".

Grella aside, Farina has stuck by the majority of the 2002 World Cup squad, echoing the consensus that the emerging generation of players is not applying enough pressure on the established internationals.

"You want to be in a situation where they are making it hard for you in selections, but to be honest they haven't been putting enough pressure on me," he said.

"The yardstick is there for them, but they have to prove themselves first. That means getting into their club sides and reaching the standards set by the guys already in the team."

Two players who were not involved in the final stages of the past World Cup campaign have won their way back into the squad - defender Lucas Neill and winger Scott Chipperfield.

Neill won the last of his two caps in 1998 and has never played under Farina, partly because of injury. His consistency for Black-burn Rovers this season is likely to see him usurp Kevin Muscat for the right fullback role.

Chipperfield, who was desperately unlucky to be axed from the squad for the Uruguay series, has earned his recall on the back of some fine displays for his Swiss club, FC Basel, in the Champions League and not because he was the only overseas-based player to make himself available for last year's ill-fated Oceania Nations Cup campaign.

"This isn't a reward for him going to New Zealand, it's a reward for his exceptional form over the last 12 months," Farina said.

The relatively small size of the squad, largely the result of Soccer Australia's budgetary constraints, and the short preparation - as few as three training sessions - gave Farina less room to experiment in his selections. Farina conceded several players had been unlucky to miss out, notably defenders Hayden Foxe and Shaun Murphy, goalkeeper Joey Didulica and striker Paul Agostino, while winger Danny Tiatto was ruled out because of injury.

"Their time will come," he said. "Sometimes you have to make the tough calls, but nobody is being ruled out for future internationals."

The England game, Farina said, would provide a "good gauge" of where the national team was at after its 14-month post-World Cup sabbatical, and he intended to pick his strongest starting line-up for a match he was treating "very seriously".

So, too, it seems are England, with the Football Association yesterday re-affirming coach Sven Goran Eriksson will name his strongest available side, despite the usual pressure from the country's two biggest clubs, Manchester United and Arsenal, to leave out some of their players.

Whether Eriksson will maintain his customary practice of using a multitude of substitutes - which devalues the fixture in many eyes - remains to be seen, but Farina confirmed he would not follow suit.

The Socceroos, meanwhile, received a major boost with the announcement yesterday that Qantas had upgraded its existing contract to include naming-rights sponsorship for the national teams until 2006.

Soccer Australia chairman Remo Nogarotto said the deal was "one of the biggest of all time", and combined with recent sponsorships completed with adidas and XXXX had given the cash-strapped national body a lifeline.